Ancient Rome
753 B.C.E. - 476 C.E.
agricultural city-state
monarchy
republic
empire
Founding of Rome
753 B.C.E.
•
•
•
Legend of
Romulus and
Remus
Etruscans establish a
monarchy in
Rome
Nobles overthrow
the monarch and
set up a Republic
The Roman Republic
507 - 31 B.C.E.
Roman Senate = patricians
General Assembly =
plebeians
two consuls = elected by the
Senate, ruled for 1 year, veto
power
Tribunes = representatives for the
plebeians
Expansion: 200’s - 100’s
• Carthage
and Gaul
(France)
• Julius
Caesar
• Extended
citizenship
and other
rights to
those they
conquered
Conquest = problems
• ineffective governors
• unequal distribution of wealth:
• latifundia = landless farmers = debtslaves, migrate to city = unemployed
urban masses ready to riot due to
scarcity of food
• latifundias turn to grazing or wine production
= Rome relied on imported wheat
Julius Caesar
• promises land to his soldiers
• promotes building and entertainment in Rome
• Soldiers become more loyal to their Army leader
than the Roman Senate
• Julius Caesar is assassinated by senators
• civil war =
• end of Republic
The ides of March (March 14) 44 B.C.E.
Roman Empire
•
•
•
Octavian = Augustus Caesar - 1st Emperor
Emperor rules alongside the Roman Senate
Establishes a new civil service
•
gentry class
•
•
31 B.C.E. - 476 C.E.
•
equites - officials - taken from merchant and
landowners
provinces ruled by governors
codified Roman law and appointed legal experts to interpret the
law
Army used to build roads, public works all over provinces
More events:
Pax Romana 31 B.C.E.(Octavian) - 180 C.E.
(Marcus Aurelius)
Spread of Christianity by Paul 45 - 58 C.E.
“Third Century Crisis” 235 - 284 C.E.
Diocletian = divides empire 285 C.E.
Constantine = moves capital to east = 324
Roman Legal System:
• innocent until proven
guilty
• the right of the accused
to confront his accusers
• judicial review and
judicial precedents
• Roman citizenship
offered protection of law
• Citizenship in return for
military service
Other Roman Achievements
Acqueduct
Roman Road:
The Appian Way
water to urban centers
More invented
Achievements
concrete
What do you
notice about
the size of all
the buildings?
•The Pantheon
Colloseum
Urban Problems/Government response
Problem:
Restless Unemployed masses
Response:
“bread and circuses”
Why?
•A form of social control
•Relive Battles for the Glory of
Rome
Social System: landed elites
come to rely on slave labor
• gap between the rich and poor grows as
independent farmers could not compete with
latifundias that used slave labor. Independent
farmers become tenant farmers.
• dependence on slavery
• paterfamilias = a patriarchal tradition where
eldest male rules the household
Social
System:
Slavery
• By 100 C.E. more than 1/3 pop of
Roman empire were slaves
• manumission possible with urban
slaves
• gladiators = slaves trained to fight for
entertainment
• harsher conditions for those in
latifundias
• dependence on slave labor = landless
peasants, lazy elites and lack of
technology
Roman Religious Beliefs :
•
•
•
•
•
Polytheistic, worshipped pagan gods
Jews refused to assimilate, Jesus Christ is born into this
community
Christianity spreads after his death, Christian communities
threatened public pagan beliefs, Christians refused to worship
Roman emperors
Paul evangelizes (proselytize) missionary work to gain converts
Christian persecution by the Roman Empire begins in 64 C.E.
with Emperor Nero and ends in 313 C.E. with the Edict of Milan
by Emperor Constantine who legalizes Christianity. Christianity
later becomes the state religion of the Roman Empire
Christianity
•
•
•
•
•
Before Christianity became the state religion of the Roman
Empire, the Romans practiced paganism, worship of pagan
gods, polytheism
313 C.E. Edict of Milan - Emperor Constantine - decriminalizes
Christianity - legalizes it
Christianity - Monotheism
equality of believers in the eyes of God
hierarchy of Catholic Church modeled after Roman Empire =
pope, bishops, priests
Reasons for Collapse
• Begins after 180 C.E. end of rule of
Marcus Aurelius (philosopher-King)
and end of Pax Romana
• Collapse happens slowly and
unevenly:
• Western = 476 Sack of Rome
• Eastern = Byzantine Empire =
1453 Ottoman Turks capture
Constantinople
• external reasons:
• Huns pushed Germanic tribes living in
the border of the Roman Empire to move
into the empire
Attila the Hun
Germanic
Invasions:
• Germanic
Tribes: adopted
farming and
Christianity - eventually moved in to the empire
and dominated: Spain, France, Italy, Britain and
North Africa. Roman peasants accept
“barbarians” because they actually feel safer in
their villages than in the chaos of the Roman
Empire.
• Visigoths
• Ostrogoths
• Vandals
• Franks
Germanic Invasions
Internal Reasons for Collapse:
Political
Problems
• A•series
of Bad Emperors = civil wars:
Problem with succession of rulers
•• Weak,
corrupt, ineffective rulers
military and senate disagree on next ruler
• Empire
too big to defend:
•• military
cannot defend borders
recruitment of troops difficult
•• mercenaries
not loyal
large military w/mercenaries hard on taxes
Economic Problems:
• Lawlessness leads to disruption of trade
• Commercial, Urban life due to civil wars
• city
with
decline of trade, avoid
civicaristocracy
duties, go to
countryside
• population
seek protection and employment
with aristocrats in countryside - protective
walls built
• high taxes = farmers lose lands = tenants
and landlords now have large manors
• cost of military draining the economy
• public
projects, irrigations, aqueducts
abandoned
Social
Problems
• Epidemics - plagues brought in from trade =
population drops = less production, less
revenue for state, fewer men for defense
• Influx of luxury items contributed to elites
•
•
•
becoming pleasure seekers, dependent on
slave labor, neglected political duties
growing gap between rich and poor =
rebellions
independent farmers became tenant farmers
diversity of empire = loss of loyalty and even
Gladiator fights couldn’t bring it back
Attempts to save Empire
EmpEmpire
•• Diocletian
= Divides
Constantine = moves capital to east
• Christianity
Edict of Milan 312 C.E. legalizes
• 324 Byzantium = Constantinople
• 476 Sack of Rome
Feudal Europe = Middle Ages
Byzantine Empire
Why is collapse
significant?
• The Roman empire did not have a
shared culture or religion to bring it
back together like....?
• Roman Empire did not have a history of
having a strong bureaucratic
government to bring it back together
like...?
• Roman Empire will never unite Europe
again. Holy Roman Empire an attempt
but not successful.
Sources:
• Bulliet’s The Earth and Its Peoples. 3rd
Edition Houghton Mifflin
• Stearn’s World Civilizations: The Global
Experience. 2003 Addison Wesley Co.
• Strayer’s Way of the World: A Global
History. 2009 Bedford/St. Martin Co.